


Life Lessons

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Egbertcest, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-28 01:39:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/668802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When John was young, he had made a promise to do whatever it takes to protect his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Lessons

John was only 5 years old, small and stocky and still finding out about the world, when he learned that people could actually die. 

They had been coming back from a lovely trip to the aquarium, watching rainbow fishes and sharks drift lazily by, a day that any family of two would enjoy. And the young boy, leaning against the window and cuddled up with his new plush salamander, nearly scared his dad into swerving off the road with a cry. A deer laid on the side of the road, blood and guts smeared into the grass. 

His father, being the hero that every dad is to their son, calmed him down once they arrived home, and explained that sometimes accidents happened to people and that these accidents sometimes killed people. He nodded, gripping his father and sniffling the whole time as his dad tucked him in and kissed his forehead goodnight. That night, John had looked up at the glow in the dark stars on the ceiling and swore that he would never let his father get hurt. Naturally, small incidents in the kitchen like a burned finger or an accidential slip with the knife had occured, and of course John was behind him like an obedient puppy, holding the aloe or the bandaids, ready to fix whatever was ailing him. Several house guests came by, a small thing that came with being a cake salesman, and John learned about each and every one of them. 

At 7, John was most fascinated with wedding cakes. A bride had come in, a wonderful woman by the name of Ms. Lalonde, and she requested a cake to look like her dress. John, with his scraped knees and missing teeth, grinned wide and declared, "I want to marry my dad someday!" At the time, it was dismissed, but then the bride came back sobbing and telling the simple baker that her wedding had been ruined when her fiance showed up with another girl. Ms. Lalonde quickly became Mom, and for once in his life John felt there was a threat to him and his father's relationship. And for the first time, when his father scalded his arm on a bubbling pot of homemade frosting, there was no young boy with aloe waiting. 

The time came for school, and John had raced back home with a small girl with messy hair and a cocky grin. Vriska was an unusual name, his father noted, but the two were too busy playing to notice. The woman of the house had moved on peacefully, assuring the man that she would keep in contact, but it was hard to keep up with outside life when you had a martini in one hand and a baby in the other, so he had to settle for watching his young boy grow into a young man and the young man grow into himself. 

Middle school brought the usual concerns, youths finding out that there was a social caste and the big talk that had become twisted and deviated by the brace-filled mouths of kids who had discovered something, but didn't quite get it yet. During this time, John had run inside and instead of bringing home Vriska in her little pigtails and overalls, he brought in Vriska in a summer dress and an ill-fitting bra. They were both pretty much losers when it came to school, if the conversations Dad overheard were true, but they were the losers that could take those below them and use them to do their bidding. This was confirmed when, around sixth grade, John and Vriska were suspended for filling a student's locker with paint. Luckily, this phase ended when Vriska threw a vase at John and Dad had come running in to kick her out. 

And thus, the house was exorcised before John's seventh grade summer, when he asked the big question. 

Dad had never really had any qualms with relationships. He had done the research and was prepared for if John was to come to him and to introduce his boyfriend, or if he was to ask to shop from the ladies' departments and change his name to something else, but he was not prepared for him to ask what incest was. He waited a few weeks, hoping John would forget, but when he came home and explained that his popular friend Dave had told him that he was dating his sister, he knew he couldn't ignore it any longer. Dad didn't really favor either side, but he explained it as when a family member loves someone in their own family. 

High school made Dad realize how much John had grown up. He had never really outgrown his husky phase, but years of helping his dad carry baking supplies to the car and back had helped him get the strength he needed to join and excel on the weight lifting team. He wasn't positive, but Dad was pretty sure that John had slept with someone, which was fairly normal for a seventeen year old boy. 

Sunday mornings at 7, John could be found in the living room, his old stuffed salamander (he had several, almost bordering a collection now) and drinking a paper cup of tea. It was during this normal routine that he had told his dad that he loved him. The house had been fairly empty for the rest of the day, aside from John. It was okay, his father usually took drives to calm his mind. Unfortunately, some accidents couldn't be ignored or prevented, and a drunk driver ramming into his dad's car had been one of these. For the first time in years, John thought of deer. 

A hospital bill is an expensive thing to pay off, and an anonymous benifactor who was obviously Dave had helped. A wheelchair was surprisingly easy to come by, especially when an old friend's boyfriend had recently gotten prosthetic legs. However, the only person who can fix the silence in a home is the residents of said home. The young boy who was no longer quite so young and a boy as he was a man now, reached out and held his father's hand. 

And he promised that he would keep him safe.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this is so awful, I haven't written in forever.


End file.
